Reviews

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

To compound this is the presence of "Innocent Devils." See, weapons aren't the only things that Hector can craft -- he can actually create magical pets to fight alongside him, and help him brave the various hazards native to the country of Valachia. These pets will attack your enemies, in most cases, but you'll also use them to help you traverse the environment -- a bird familiar, for instance, can ferry you across ledges too far for you to jump, while your earth-elemental-guy can force open reinforced doors. The real kicker, though, is that they level up alongside you, and evolve into new forms. They'll sometimes also spawn "devil shards," which are essentially eggs that you can hatch to create baby versions of themselves, in case you want to guide their evolution. Depending on which type of "evo crystals" you "feed" them, you see, they can take on different forms.

You're now starting to see the myriad methods that Curse of Darkness employs to keep you playing, despite the fact that it's essentially somewhat repetitive. For me personally, I really enjoy this sort of thing -- unlocking new weapon formulas, leveling up familiars, and the like. Once the appeal of this starts to wear off for you, however -- or more likely, if you don't care about this sort of stuff in the first place -- then there frankly won't be a whole lot to keep you playing. The game's story is interesting, or at least, some of the characters are -- Hector is your typical revenge-driven antihero, while Isaac, his nemesis, and fellow Forgemaster, behaves just how you'd imagine a crazed servant of darkness would. Luckily, the supporting cast picks up the slack, particularly Saint Germaine, an apparent time traveler that's suave, debonair, and enigmatic. The voice acting, it bears mention, is especially good, which came as an unpleasant surprise. Believe it or not, I actually found myself looking forward to the narrative cutscenes in Curse of Darkness. Also, and not surprisingly, the music is excellent. One of the finer example of Castlevania we've seen in a while.

Innocent Devils are always down to lend a helping hand.

A 3D Castlevania game doesn't necessarily have to reference its 2D legacy to provide an enjoyable experience in its own right. It's just that there is so much in its history that can be extrapolated from to create an engrossing, 3D adventure. Curse of Darkness is often a lot of fun in its own right, but if you're not the kind of player that can tolerate "grind"-style gameplay -- and indeed, often thrive on this -- then you might get bored here. Starting with Lament of Innocence, it seems like Konami is inching ever closer to creating the 3D Castlevania game that we've been waiting years to play. Curse of Darkness is an incremental step in the right direction.